The story.
Abrie Beeslaar is the winemaker at Kanonkop on the Simonsberg, a winery that over many years has done more than any other to raise the profile of South Africa’s native cultivar, Pinotage. He has only been making his eponymous Pinotage since 2012, but already it has achieved iconic status, with the 2015 vintage named the best red wine in South Africa in 2017 by Tim Atkin MW. Abrie sources the grapes from a 2.5-hectare, 24-year-old block of bush vines close to Kanonkop in Stellenbosch, planted on well-draining shale at an altitude of 200 metres. Only around 800 cases made each year.
